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How To Get Ants Out Of A Dresser? A Guide To Natural Remedies

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Finding ants swarming through your dresser is a pure nightmare. How to get ants out of a dresser? Ants in clothes or ants in closets are hard to get rid of. How to get rid of ants in the closet? Or how to get ants out of clothes? You’ll have to relocate to Antarctica if you want a residence that is guaranteed to be ant-free. That doesn’t mean you’ll have to survive in the blasting cold. 

Ants all over your clothing would undoubtedly prompt you to behave quickly and, in some circumstances, unreasonably. Ants on the carpet, inside the wardrobe, ants coming from the baseboard, ants in the couch, or ants coming up through the hardwood floor will lead them to reside in your dresser. Ants can transmit diseases if they come into contact with your food, but having them on your clothes can cause a few health concerns, like itching and ant bits.

In this post, you will learn how to get ants out of a dresser. 

Why Have Ants on Clothes Infested Your Dresser?

Why Have Ants Infested Your Dresser?

If you’re finding ants in and around the closet, check behind and under it. Ants aren’t always on the lookout for new apparel. Ants do not feed on textiles. Therefore, they are most likely just traveling through your closet looking for food or refuge.

There might be a fissure in the wall or floor behind or beneath your closet, and ants are just utilizing it as a shortcut to get around your house.

Why Are There Ants in My Dresser? 

how to get ants out of a dresser

Here are a few reasons why a swarm of ants is in your dresser: 

  • A Colony Nearby: Keeping an ant colony growing requires a lot of food and water. Colonies forage for resources by sending worker ants out to forage. Ants can move hundreds of feet from their nest in search of food, but if you encounter a large number of ants daily, the colony may be near your bedroom or home.
  • Bad Weather: Ants, like humans, dislike inclement weather. Winter ants will often come into dwellings to seek warmth in the colder weather. During periods of intense heat, the same thing might happen. Ants enjoy being hot, but there’s a limit to how hot they can go. Storms might also force them to seek safe indoor homes.
  • Finding Food for Ants: The quest for food and water consumes much of a foraging ant’s time. It’s possible that if you find a lot of ants in your bedroom, it’s because they’ve found something tasty to eat. Leftover food is something like a magnet, attracting that share of food in homes.

How To Get Ants Out Of A Dresser?

ants indoor on the wodden floor

Use the following methods to eliminate ants on clothes: 

Chalk

Hand with chalk isolated on white background, Vertical image size

Draw a chalk line in front of the location where the ants enter your home. It’ll function as a deterrent that they won’t be able to overcome. To keep your chalk line working, refresh it now and again.

Some believe it’s because the calcium carbonate in the chalk is toxic to ants. Others believe the chalk line is interfering with their smell tracks. Whatever the case may be, it appears to work. 

Boiling Water

Boiling water in a stainless saucepan on a gas stove.

Boiling water is a smart way of getting rid of ants in the dresser. Identify the ant holes in your closet and throughout your home and fill them with hot water. While the boiling water will not kill the whole colony, it will kill the majority of the ants.

Peppermint Essential Oil

Essential aroma oil with peppermint on wooden background. Selective focus, horizontal.

To get rid of the ants, spray five drops of peppermint essential oil on a cotton ball and wipe it around the edge of the dresser. Place the cotton ball in that spot to keep the peppermint scent around.

The room indeed has a peppermint scent to it. But it was rather lovely, and it smelled a lot better than a commercial ant killer spray.

Tea Tree Oil

Glass bottle with cosmetic essential oil, fresh leaf isolated on green background. Organic natural product. Copy space.

In your cupboard, you’ll find another essential oil that works as an insect repellent. Tea tree oil has insecticidal and repelling properties. It’s safe as it is gentle on the skin, making it a natural way to kick out ants from your home.

Spray a diluted amount of tea tree oil on the immediate cause or use an oil burner to distribute it, just like peppermint.

Cinnamon Powder

Essential cinnamon oil in a small bottle, ground cinnamon and cinnamon sticks on old wooden background, selective focus

Cinnamon is one of the fragrances that is claimed to repel ants. Sprinkle some cinnamon powder over the area where you wish to keep ants away.

Employ Deterrents Sign

If you know the location of ants but haven’t been able to keep them out, consider laying down diatomaceous earth. Ants avoid these small shells because they resemble razor blades. You may also follow ants back to their nest and use a water hose to wash them out.

Put the hose as far as it will go into the nest and turn on the water. Several treatments should flood the nest and persuade the ants to relocate. Before doing this, make sure you’re not dealing with fire ants.

Pepper 

Closeup black pepper seeds or peppercorns ( dried seeds of piper nigrum)  in wooden scoop isolated on white background. Top view. Flat lay.

All types of pepper, including black pepper, chili pepper, and cayenne pepper, have strong odors. These strong odors can also deter ants from coming around, and they can be strewn around the area where ants are a problem.

Lemons

lemon slice, clipping path, isolated on white background

Natural ant repellents include citrus fruits such as lemons, limes, and oranges. Because lemons are harmful to several types of fungus that ants eat, spreading lemon peel or lemon juice around your home will keep ants away.

You may also use citrus-scented cleansers throughout the dresser but avoid synthetic scented solutions because they have no impact.

Seal cracks in Home

To an ant, that misaligned seam at the back of your cabinet may appear to be a minor structural problem, but it’s like a motorway heading straight to the best food store in town. Take the time to inspect and seal any cracks or holes in your dresser, cabinets, baseboards, windows, or doors.

Make it a project by inspecting your home’s foundation, attic, crawlspace, and locations where water lines and electrical cables enter the house.

Cracks should be sealed and checked for suspicious droppings, or mud spatters that indicate mice, rats, wasps, bees, ants, or termites are present. Seal big cracks with caulk, and fill small ones with petroleum jelly.

Vinegar Remedies

Vinegar remedies

This popular culinary ingredient is also an effective ant repellent. Make a 50-50 mix of water and vinegar and spritz it all over your dresser. You may also use vinegar on its own, which works by killing and repelling ants. Ants, unlike humans, can smell vinegar after it has dried, making it an excellent treatment.

Use Ant baits

Ant baits are a clever approach to eliminating ant infestations in your dresser. The following will work: Ants devour the poisoned bait that takes a long time to kill and introduce to the colony.

The queen passes away, and the nest disperses quickly. One advantage of putting down bait traps ahead of time is that you can eradicate ant infestations before they become a problem.

Glass cleaner

Another typical ant repellent is a good old bottle of glass cleaner. You may either spray directly on the source or dilute with liquid soap and spray on the problem region. It works by eliminating the scented pheromone trail that ants use to return to their nest.

Diatomaceous earth

Diatomaceous Earth against a wooden background

It is the preferred method for eliminating many pests, and it also works for pesky ants like borax. Diatomaceous earth is a form of silica made up of fossilized aquatic creatures’ remnants. Spray it around the ant colonies and wait a few days. It kills ants by absorbing and drying up their oils.

Coffee Grounds Source

Ground coffee in wooden spoon. Coffee fried grain on wooden platter. Close-up. Coffee ground, coffee beans.

Do you enjoy a cup of coffee? If that’s the case, make a habit of scattering spent coffee grounds in your yard and around your home. Coffee grinds’ strong odor repulses ants.

As a result, the grounds are an excellent source of pet-friendly pest management. Coffee grounds, which are high in minerals like potassium, phosphate, and magnesium, are beneficial to your plant soil.

Conclusion

If you have ants in your dresser, it almost always signals you have a larger ant problem nearby (inside or outside your home), and you should examine your entire house for ants.

There may be an issue with the house itself, such as damaged walls because ants hide and establish nests in confined spaces. Cleaning is an important barrier for ants. Therefore, you should check how clean your home is from time to time.

About the author

A biotechnologist by profession and a passionate pest researcher. I have been one of those people who used to run away from cockroaches and rats due to their pesky features, but then we all get that turn in life when we have to face something.